One of the joys of being a teacher is when your pupils buy you presents. This afternoon I managed to receive two gifts within the space of around thirty minutes, which isn't bad going really.

Firstly a boy from my form came up to my room at lunch time to give me some incense. He's a sweet little kid and will recieve an award at the end of the year for general loveliness. Though quite what he's trying to say by giving me incense I don't know. So many pupils seem to think I'm gay at the moment and I wouldn't call incense the most masculine item.

Then in my year nine lesson two girls presented me with a Sainsbury's bag containing a decent sized chocolate bar, a can of Stella and a bottle of Carlsberg. If I'm being honest the way it was presented made it look like they'd robbed it from a tramp but it was very sweet of them nevertheless. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to steal a quote from the Simpsons: 'Beer! How did you know?' I told them thank you several times over and that I was touched. This comment probably goes some way towards explaining why people are questioning my sexuality.

Friday afternoons are always hard work but things like that make them so much easier.